Æ42 - Marcus Aurelius ΕΠΙ οΚΤ ΑΡΤΕΜΙΔΩΡοΥ ΑΡΧ Α ϹΑΙΤΤΗΝΩΝ

Saitta was a minor Lydian city in the Hermos valley whose civic coinage depended entirely on the prestige of the Roman magistrate named on the die. The legend here credits Artemidoros as first archon, a local official whose sponsorship of the issue was both a civic honor and a personal financial obligation — magistrates in Asia Minor commonly funded strikes from their own resources as a form of euergetism.

This piece was struck in the final year of Marcus Aurelius's reign, while the emperor was campaigning on the Danube frontier against the Marcomanni. At 51 grams it sits at the heavy end of what Saittene bronze production managed.